The Collaborative International Dictionary
Vengeance \Venge"ance\, n. [F. vengeance, fr. venger to avenge, L. vindicare to lay claim to, defend, avenge, fr. vindex a claimant, defender, avenger, the first part of which is of uncertain origin, and the last part akin to dicere to say. See Diction, and cf. Avenge, Revenge, Vindicate.]
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Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or an offense; retribution; -- often, in a bad sense, passionate or unrestrained revenge.
To me belongeth vengeance and recompense.
--Deut. xxxii. 35.To execute fierce vengeance on his foes.
--Milton. -
Harm; mischief. [Obs.]
--Shak.What a vengeance, or What the vengeance, what! -- emphatically. [Obs.] ``But what a vengeance makes thee fly!''
--Hudibras. ``What the vengeance! Could he not speak 'em fair?''
--Shak.With a vengeance, with great violence; as, to strike with a vengeance. [Colloq.]
Wiktionary
prep.phr. (context idiomatic English) With an intense motivation; in an extreme, intense, or violent manner.
Usage examples of "with a vengeance".
Duiker stared down, watching hundreds of civilians rush forward, caring nothing for weapons, intent only on closing with the companies of archers, on answering the day's carnage with a vengeance no less terrible.
The operator went to work with a vengeance as Kevin stared up at Roarke, eyes wide, mouth agape.
Winter is coming, warned the Stark words, and truly it had come for them with a vengeance.
Disgust welled up within him and he turned away, ripping the weeds from the garden with a vengeance, wishing it was as easy to rip away the guilt that consumed him day and night.
He drank with a vengeance, wiping his lips with the back of his hand, longing for the ability to dull his perfect Berserker senses.
I was lost with a vengeance, and at the thought I began to be acutely afraid.
And once he had mastered his art, he returned to the fray with a vengeance, fuelled by a cold malevolent hatred whose compulsive power only Greg could fully perceive.